Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Bed Bath & Beyond Drops Amid Weak 2018 Outlook; QuinStreet Shares Climb

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.24 percent to 24,488.78 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.02 percent to 7,141.20. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.86 percent to 2,664.88.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the financial shares climbed 1.9 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. WDR, up 6 percent, and Consumer Capital Group, Inc CCGN, up 5 percent.

In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell 1.19 percent.

Top Headline

Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL reported better-than-expected profit for its first quarter.

The company said it earned 74 cents per share in the first quarter on revenue of $9.968 billion versus expectations of 73 cents per share on revenue of $9.84 billion. The company did guide its second quarter EPS to be in a range of $1.80 to $2.00 versus expectations of $1.95 per share.

Equities Trading UP

QuinStreet, Inc. QNST shares shot up 18 percent to $11.95. The marketing company was subject of a short-seller report from Kerrisdale Capital. QuinStreet said Kerrisdale's analysis is "invalid" and "inaccurate." The company also reported upbeat fiscal third quarter sales guidance after Wednesday's close.

Shares of CYREN Ltd. CYRN got a boost, shooting up 21 percent to $2.84. The cloud-based internet security technology company said in a regulatory filing it won a "material contract" with "one of the world's largest technology companies" to be used among "millions of its enterprise users."

ZUORA INC ZUO shares were also up, gaining 51 percent to $21.20. Zuora priced its IPO at $14 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY shares dropped 19 percent to $17.40. Bed Bath & Beyond reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter, but issued weak FY18 guidance. Comps were down 0.4 percent in the quarter.

Shares of Novavax, Inc. NVAX were down 13 percent to $1.80. Novavax priced its 30.3 million share public offering of common stock at $1.65 per share.

LiqTech International, Inc. LIQT was down, falling around 20 percent to $0.39. LiqTech priced its 16.91 million share offering at a price of $0.34 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.16 percent to $66.71 while gold traded down 1.4 percent to $1,341.00.

Silver traded down 1.51 percent Thursday to $16.515, while copper fell 1.57 percent to $3.068.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.70 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.12 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.27 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.98 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.59 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.02 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims slipped 9,000 to 233,000 in the first week of April. Economists were expecting claims to reach 230,000.

U.S. import price index was flat for March, versus economists’ expectations for a 3.8 percent rise. Export prices increased 0.3 percent in March.

Domestic supplies of natural gas slipped 19 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 6, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a drop of 11 billion cubic feet.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is set to speak in Minneapolis at 5:00 p.m. ET.